These stories are
affectionately dedicated to the memory of the original Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, built in 1920 by Count Zborowski on his
estate near Canterbury.

She had a pre-1914
war, chain drive, 75 horsepower Mercedes chassis in which was
installed a six-cylinder Mayback aero engine--the military
type used by the Germans in their Zeppelins.

Four vertical overhead
valves per cylinder were operated by exposed push rods and
rockers from a camshaft on each side of the crankcase, and two
Zenith carburetors were attached, one at each end of a long
induction pipe.

She had a grey steel
body with an immense polished hood eight feet in length, and
weighed over five tons.

In 1921, she won the
Hundred M.P.H. Short Handicap at Brooklands at 101 miles per
hour, and, in 1922, again at Brooklands, the Lightning Short
Handicap. But in that year she was involved in an
accident and the Count never raced her again.